Portal 3: The Return
by Aerma
Summary: "Did you really think I would let you go that easily?" I kept waiting to hear that. I was sure GLaDOS wasn't finished with me. I looked around. Everything seemed to be normal, or at least what I thought of as normal. The sky was a bright blue with clouds slowly moving across, the very real wheat field going on forever. I started to walk away, but I looked back. I saw the compa...
1. Return

"Did you really think I would let you go that easily?"

I kept waiting to hear that. I was sure GLaDOS wasn't finished with me. I looked around. Everything seemed to be normal, or at least what I thought of as normal. The sky was a bright blue with clouds slowly moving across, the very real wheat field going on forever.

I started to walk away, but I looked back. I saw the companion cube and wondered whether I should take it with me. I decided not to. If I was going to leave, I didn't want any reminders of the Aperture Science laboratories.

I continued walking, then started running. I broke into sprint, desperate to return to the real world. I saw something in the distance. It looked like a small building. I ran towards it at full speed. As I got closer, I realized it was a barn. I ran faster. When I finally got to it, I was exhausted. I ran into the open doors, closing them behind me.

I collapsed onto the muddy ground, trying to catch my breath. I looked around, but there wasn't anything in the barn except for a single door in the back. I walked to it, wondering what was on the other side.

I opened the door and looked down, but I couldn't see very far down due to the darkness. I started down the stairs, keeping one hand on the railing. It was much longer than I expected, but I kept going.

After what seemed like hours, I finally reached the bottom. I couldn't see a thing, but I smelled something. I couldn't place a name of the it. I continued walking, keeping my right hand on the right wall so I wouldn't get lost. If anything happened, I could just turn around and walk with my left hand on the left wall and end up right where I started.

I walked for another few minutes until I bumped into a wall. I felt a doorknob and turned it. On the other side was a blinding light, so I shielded my eyes with my arm. Finally my eyes adjusted, and it stopped seeming so bright. I opened my eyes and saw only a small, white room. I walked in and shut the door behind me. I walked over to the right wall and looked at it. There seemed to be some writing on it. I brushed it off a little, and saw something very familiar. The Aperture Science logo. GLaDOS's voice came from above.

"Congratulations. You were able to solve this test. You figured out that I didn't really let you go. You're going to spend the rest of your tiny, insignificant life doing nothing but testing. What fun. Well, not much point chatting. We have so much to do and such little time to do it. This will be fun."

A green gas started to fill the room. At first, I thought is was neurotoxin (again) but then I heard GLaDOS's voice again:

"Don't worry, this won't kill you. I'm saving that for later. This is just to put you to sleep for a while for a second time. Although I am looking forward to when I _do_ get to kill you."

That's when I blacked out.


	2. Chambers

When I woke, I was in a place I knew well, the relaxation vault. The radio was still there, still playing the same tune as when I first started testing.

"Finally. You took forever to wake up, you abandoned lunatic. I'm sorry, I may have crossed the line. Actually, that was a lie. I'm not sorry. Anyway, it's been a long time since we tested normally, so I'll give you a little warm up," GLaDOS said.

I wasn't exactly excited about the "warm up" she had planned for me, but I didn't really have much of a choice. An orange portal opened up in the vault, with a blue one opening right outside. I stepped through, and suddenly I was standing outside the vault. I always got a weird tingling feeling every time I went through a portal, but I was used to it. I also realized my long-fall boots were gone.

"Very good," said GLaDOS. "The warm up is just through that hallway."

I walked through the hallway she pointed out, and at the end there was a small room. There was nothing but a closed door, a single cube, and a button. GLaDOS spoke again:

"This warm up is very simple. I would tell you how to do it, but we both know what would happen then."

I knew. She would get a very, very painful electric shock. I picked up the cube, which was pretty heavy, and placed it onto the button, which opened the door. I walked through, past the Aperture Science Material Emancipation Grill, into the elevator. Just like always, it closed once I was inside. While it was moving, I heard GLaDOS over the speakers:

"Now that you've completed that first test, it's time to get to the fun stuff. You'll see what I mean. The Dual Portal Device will be outside."

The doors finally opened, and as she said, the Dual Portal Device was sitting on the ground in front of me. I picked it up, and was glad to have it again instead of nothing. I looked in front of me, and saw Wheatley, the _other_ core who tried to kill me, just laying on the ground. The blue in his eye was barely visible.

"I sent a small rocket to get him for this test," GLaDOS said. "I left the Space Core in space, he seemed to be happy there. Anyway, for this test, your job is to throw that moron into the incinerator. It's a test of morality. Remember, he tried to kill both of us."

Yes, he tried to kill me, but he also tried to help me escape. I looked up and saw a timer, set for 1 minute.

"You have one minute to complete this test before I start up the neurotoxin," GLaDOS said. "It isn't very difficult, there's an incinerator right there beside you. Just pick him up and throw him in."

I used my portal gun to pick up Wheatley (it could do that). I looked at him. Without thinking any more, I walked over to the incinerator and threw him in.

"Wow, I didn't think you would actually do it. Well, unfortunately that wasn't really the moron core, just a piece of garbage I found. Funny how they look so alike. I would never bother retrieving him, he's not worth it."

I wasn't sure if I felt sad or relieved. Before I could decide, the floor disappeared.

"Here's the next test. You have one goal: survive."

I immediately shot a portal straight up, and one directly below me. That would at least give me some time to think of what to do while I fall forever. I spun around in midair, trying to take in my surroundings. I was still inside, in a giant room. I saw that the entire room was made of surfaces I could shoot portals at. I fell through the portal below me, so I was back at the top, still falling. I decided to take a huge risk. I shot a portal at the bottom of one of the side walls, and made sure there was still one below me. Again, my long-fall boots were gone, so I couldn't just land on the ground.

My plan worked. I fell through the bottom portal, and out the one on the wall, and my jumpsuit saved me from getting some _serious_ rug burns.

"So you're still alive. That means you completed the test successfully. I'll give you some time to reflect on your near-death experience. You seem to have a lot of those."

GLaDOS was right when she said I had a lot of near-death experiences. And I knew I would have a lot more.


	3. Morality

After the last test, I was a little scared for what was coming, to say the least. I thought back to the time she almost burned me in a fiery pit, how I barely managed to portal my way out. That was when I first started testing, in what I called Phase One. Phase Two began after my long, long sleep, after I killed GLaDOS for the first time. When I woke up, and accidentally helped wake _her_ up, she looked, sounded, and acted a little differently, a little more human. But just as dangerous, if not more so. I figured this was the start of Phase Three. I wondered if I would manage to kill her for a third time, or if I would even be able to survive for that long. How long would I have to continue doing this? GLaDOS has said multiple times it would be for the rest of my life, but I wasn't so sure.

"Okay, that's been long enough. Unlike me, your life is finite, which means that we can't wait forever. Get back to testing," she said. I gritted my teeth. She didn't have the morality core anymore, so she didn't have any sense of right from wrong. She literally cannot intentionally act morally. But still, this was _nice_ for her. I stood up and walked down the single hallway.

"I decided normal testing was getting a bit boring, so I'm making it more interesting for both of us," GLaDOS said. "You seem to enjoy killing relentlessly, so I think you'll enjoy this next test. Also, there's two things you may find surprising. First, there will be other humans involved, all of them completely alive! The second is that you get to kill them! Honestly, I almost wish I was you right now. Almost. I'll open up a portal for you to go through, hold on a second." Soon, an orange portal opened at the end of the hallway. I could see what looked like an arena on the other side. Knowing I had no choice, I stepped through.

I walked around the arena. It was very small, maybe twenty yards in diameter. I walked to an edge, and saw that that there was a pool of green liquid. I remembered this liquid from previous tests. If you touched it, you would die very quickly, so I knew that I wouldn't want to fall down. I backed away, towards the center of the arena.

Suddenly, four blue portals opened up around me, and one person stepped out of each. There was two girls and two guys. They all looked around my age, twenty or so, all wearing orange jumpsuits identical to mine. I looked at them in awe. In all of my testing, which began a while ago, I haven't seen a single other person (minus pictures of Cave Johnson and Caroline in the old Aperture Science). I don't have any memories from before I woke up the first time in the relaxation vault, so I have no idea if I've _ever_ seen someone else before then.

I opened my mouth to speak, but no sound came out. I wasn't mute like GLaDOS said, but I simply never wanted to give her the satisfaction of a reply, so I never talk. I don't even know what I sound like. I heard her voice from a speaker on the ceiling, bringing me back to reality.

"The rules are simple," she started. "You can either kill these other test subjects, or be killed yourself. If you manage to win, you will be rewarded with cake. Except this time, I'm not lying, there is actually cake for you if you survive." I knew there wouldn't be cake. She promised cake at the end of testing in Phase One, and I never got any.

The people looked wearily. They didn't seem to like this either. Except for one of the guys. He ran straight for me with anger in his eyes. I tried to dodge to the right, but he was fast. He tackled me to the ground and wrapped an arm around my neck.

"Oh my god!" screamed one girl. She and the other 2 ran toward me and the guy. He started choking me. I couldn't breath. The others weren't able to pull him off me, until one of the girls kicked him in the face, hard. He yelled, let go of my neck, and grabbed the girl who kicked him. She screamed as he pulled her toward the edge of the arena. I wanted to help, but I was still dizzy. They were at the edge. The other guy tried to push him in, but with abnormal speed he moved out of the way. He pushed the guy in, and threw the girl in after.

I watched in horror as they sank into the liquid, both screaming. The one who pushed them in was watching too. I got up, anger overloading my brain.. He turned around, grinned, and started walking my way. I backed up to the edge of the arena. He started sprinting toward me, ready to push me in next. At the last second, I dropped to the ground. Unable to stop his momentum, he fell into the liquid, barely making a noise as he sank down. I realized what I had done. I spoke for the first time in a long, long time.

"I killed him. I actually killed him." I knew he killed the other two without hesitation, but I didn't think that made it right. I looked at the other girl, who I couldn't read the expression of. GLaDOS spoke over the speakers, breaking the silence.

"Good job. You managed to kill of the first three. And I'll admit I was wrong, I thought you were mute. I'm not going to make you two kill each other, I'm getting bored of this too, now. Just move on." A bridge came up from under the liquid, connecting the arena to the wall, and a portal opened on the other side. I looked at the girl, and she nodded. We crossed the bridge and went through the portal.


	4. Beginning

Finally, the girl spoke.

"What you did wasn't wrong. He killed the other two and he was going to kill you too." I didn't know how to respond. I had so many questions. I decided to change the subject and get some of them answered.

"Who are you? Have you been testing too? Have you been through everything I have?" It felt weird to talk after not doing so for so long, but I was getting used to it.

"Whoh, slow down," she said. "I'm Alison, but you can call me Ali. Yes, I've done a little testing with GLaDOS, but only for a few weeks, maybe. I don't remember anything before, though. And I have no idea what you've been through, so I can't answer answer that last question. Who are you? I've never seen you before. Or really anyone else, for that matter."

"My name is Chell. I don't even know how long I've been here, but it's been a while. I don't remember anything else either. And I've been through a lot. I killed GLaDOS twice, portaled to the moon and back, and I've been very close to death many, many times." I told Ali about all my experiences, from when I first started Phase One until the present. She told me hers.

Her story was identical to mine, except she woke up for the first time in the beginning of Phase 2. Everything was the same. I was about to ask her about a few more details, but I was interrupted by GLaDOS.

"This next test involves cooperation between the two of you. If you fail to work together, it won't be possible. I would say good luck, but I don't think you'll need it. You two seem to have taken a liking for each other."

If wasn't sure what GLaDOS meant by this, and Ali didn't seem to either.

"So I guess no cake," I muttered. Ali laughed. "Of course not. She promised some while I was testing also, but I never got any."

"Maybe we'll eventually get pie instead," I said hopefully. She laughed again. "How about apple pie?"

"I'm more of a key lime fan, actually."

"Key lime pie? Never tried it."

"Well maybe you will soon," I said, laughing lightly. "If so, we should get on with the testing."

We walked over to the door at the end of the corridor. It didn't open automatically like they usually do.

"Oh, I'm sorry," GLaDOS said. "I forgot to unlock the door. I guess I got distracted listening to your conversation. You know, I don't usually get any feedback from my test subjects, they don't really like talking to me most of the time. But I'll take it into consideration." The door made a clicking sound, then opened. Inside there was a button, platform, and an already open door located on the opposite side of the room.

"There aren't any cubes," said Ali. "Usually when there's a button, there's a cube."

We walked into the chamber, and I stepped onto the button to see what would happen. The platform started moving up and down, from the ground to a more elevated area that was too high to climb onto.

"I have an idea," I said. "There's probably another button at the higher area, so maybe you can go up there while I stand on the button and take a look." She walked onto the platform and got to the elevated area.

"You were right, there is a button," Ali called down. "It looks like it's also connected to the platform. I think if I stand on this one, you can step off and get up here too."

"Good idea," I said. She stepped onto her button, and I stepped off of mine. Just as she said, the platform kept moving. I walked onto it and reached the top.

"Your performance was above average on this test," said GLaDOS. "You completed it in record time. Anyway, this is fun. Let's just do this for a while."

And we did. We continued testing together for a while, and by the time we got to the twentieth chamber, we were exhausted.

"You two seem tired. I'll let you rest for a while." She opened a previously hidden door on the wall, revealing two small beds.

Ali and I looked at each other. GLaDOS never acted morally, and when she did, she was still absurdly mean by human standards. But we were to tired to question her. We walked into the room, set down the portal guns, and climbed into the beds. We fell asleep right away.

I woke up, not sure how long I'd been asleep. I looked over at Ali, who was starting at the ceiling.

"Do you think we'll be here for the rest of our lives?" she said, still looking up.

"I don't think so," I replied. "She's a machine, but still flawed. We'll find a way to escape at some point."

"I hope so, I don't think I can bare doing this much longer. I don't even know if I have a life outside of the facility. I don't know if I have a family or not. The world could be in chaos for all we know." She sighed.

"Maybe, I have no idea if that wheat field was even real or not. I have a feeling it wasn't, just some sort of simulation."

"What do you think we're even testing for? All of this, our lives given, up, but for what?"

"Maybe when we escape, we can find that out, too," I said. She replied, "Maybe." She sighed. "We should get back asleep, something tells me we won't be able to sleep again for a while. See you tomorrow."

"Goodnight," I said. And with that, we fell asleep for the first time in a long, long time.


	5. Life

I woke to one of my least favorite noises, the sound of GLaDOS's voice.

"It's been long enough. Time to continue testing, my subjects," she said. I groaned, then looked over at Ali, who looked just as disgusted as I felt. I was happy that I finally got some sleep, though. I felt much better, like there's been a needle stuck in me for my entire life that's just been removed.

Ali and I got out of our beds, picked up our portal guns, and walked out of the room. Unsurprisingly, the door shut behind us, locking us out. Outside (but still in the facility), there was a elevator that wasn't there previously. Looking behind me, I could see the other way has been blocked off, meaning the elevator was our only way to continue. We entered; it was barely big enough to fit both of us.

When we stepped out of the elevator, we were in a room with nothing but stairs going up to a door, identical to all of them back in Phase Two. We walked up and entered the door, which opened for us.

"In this test, you will have to simply find your way to the other side. Simple, if your parents loved you enough to send you to school or teach you themselves. So _Chell,_ this may be a bit difficult for you. I'm sure your friend here would be more than happy to assist you herself," GLaDOS said. I looked over at Ali. "She does this a lot," she said. "I don't have a clue whether she's lying about my parents abandoning me or not, although I think she is just to spite me."

Ali smiled, then looked down quickly. "Sorry, that's not funny," she said. "You just look cute when you're mad."

"Thanks," I replied sarcastically. "Cuteness will really help get through the chambers."

I looked around the room. There was a small area we were standing on, and another one that looked the same about twenty yards away, with a big gap in between. Over the edge, there was just flat ground. The other area didn't have any portal surfaces, so we needed a different way to get across.

"Look," said Ali. "At the bottom, there's a pipe. We could get across using that."

She shot a portal on the wall next to us, and one at the lower wall at the bottom, about an eighth of a mile below us.

"Nice shot," I said. "Usually it takes me at least three tries to get a portal where I want at such long distances."

Ali just smiled. We went through the portal, and found the pipe at the bottom. It looked just long enough to connect the two areas up top. It was heavy, but together we managed to get it through the portal. The problem was getting one end to the other area. We ended up just scootching the pipe as far as we could, then just gave it one big push. We had unlimited attempts, because if it fell below we could just portal back down there.

We got it on our second try. The pipe was then balancing between where we entered and where the opposite door was. Then things got a little scary. The pipe was really narrow, just about an inch and a half thick, which means it would be very difficult to balance on. Also, if the pipe fell, we did too. And neither of us had our long-fall boots, so things would be bad. We decided to go one at a time. One would hold the pipe so it didn't roll on one side while the other walked across, then do the same for the other.

Suddenly, there was an explosion sound.

"Get to the end, now!" said GLaDOS, concerned for once. "In less than a minute, this chamber will be gone. The facility was bombed!"

"Get to the other side," I said. "I'll be right behind you."

"Are you sure?" questioned Ali.

"Yes, go!" I insisted.

She was obviously terrified. I was too, if either of us fell off the pipe, we would be dead. If we took too long, we would also be dead, maybe more painfully. Ali carefully stepped onto the pipe, me holding it completely still. After a second of hesitation, she put her other foot on, and started walking across.

When she was about a third there, there was another explosion noise, this time closer. One of her feet slipped, but she stayed on. I was sweating. Out of nowhere, a big piece of metal broke off from the ceiling and landed next to me. I got an idea, probably a bad one. Keeping one hand on the pipe, I moved the metal onto it. It was really heavy, which meant it could keep it from rolling.

I stepped onto the pipe.

"I'm coming behind you," I said to Ali. "Don't look back." I tried to walk quickly, but it's kind of hard to rush while walking on what was basically a very thick tightrope. Soon, I was close behind Ali, and we were a little over halfway there.

There was a third explosion, closer than ever. Ali yelped and slipped off the pipe completely. Somehow I caught her arm, which pulled me down also. I managed to grab onto the pipe with my left hand, holding onto Ali with my right. For a moment, we just dangled there. I didn't have the upper body strength to pull us back up, but I knew we would die if I didn't.

I took a short moment to gather all my remaining strength, and managed to pull Ali up higher. She grabbed onto the pipe, so we were hanging off side by side. Somehow we pulled ourselves up so we were back on the pipe. We were out of energy, but we still found some somewhere to crawl on the pipe to safety. We finally made it to the end, but we didn't have any time to waste. We sprinted through the door and out the other side.

"Good, you're still alive," GLaDOS said. "Keep running, there's room up ahead that-" An explosion just above us destroyed the speakers. We kept going until we found a door on the wall. Next to it there was a sign saying it was a bomb shelter. How convenient. The door was locked.

"GLaDOS!" I yelled, breathing heavily. "The door's locked!" I had no idea if she could hear me or not. I guess she could, because a second later the door opened itself. We ran inside, slamming it behind us. We collapsed onto the ground on top of each other, desperate for air.

"You saved my life," said Ali once we caught our breaths.

"Well I wasn't just going to let you die," I said. "You're my friend."

There was another explosion right next to us, but we were safe. At that point, exhaustion overtook me and I fell unconscious.


	6. Escape

When I woke, we were still in the room. Everything looked exactly the same, but there was a faint smell of smoke. Ali woke up seconds after I did, so we opened the door. Everything was destroyed, and there was a lot of things of fire. I had a feeling we wouldn't be hearing from GLaDOS anytime soon. We walked slowly through the wreckage, not sure where we were going. Then I had a thought.

"Wait, hold on," I said.

"Is something wrong?" asked Ali.

"Well, obviously there are many things wrong, but I realized something. GLaDOS can't see or hear us because everything is destroyed, right? Maybe this is our chance to escape. She won't know what we're doing, and because of the explosions there has to be some way out," I explained. "We just have to find it."

"You're right," she said, smiling. "I didn't think about that."

We continued walking through the hallway, which seemed to go on forever. We didn't talk for a while, just focusing on moving forward. After about half an hour, we heard a very faint, robotic noise. There seemed to be one of GLaDOS speakers, still working. We ran over to it and listened carefully.

"Are you there? Can you hear me?" she said.

"GLaDOS?" asked Ali.

"Yes, hi," she said. " As I mentioned, the facility blew up. You two were lucky enough to find that nice room. All the testing chambers are gone, unrepairable. I think you should come find me so we can discuss what we should do. I know you're probably thinking about escaping, but you won't be able to get out without my help."

"Hey GLaDOS," I started. "Why are you being so nice all the sudden? You've changed."

"Oh, no particular reason," she said, laughing lightly. "Anyway, you shouldn't have much trouble getting to me. I think there's steps somewhere close by. The elevators aren't working anymore. By the way, there should be a little radio inside the speaker. It's rewired to be a communication device between you and I in case of emergency, so you might want to take it with you. Just smash it against something and the radio should be somewhere inside. You're good at breaking things, aren't you?"

I sighed. The speaker was already damaged, so it was easy to remove from the inside of the wall, which was half gone. Together, Ali and I smashed it onto the ground, cracking it in half. Inside, as GLaDOS said, there was a radio identical to the one in the relaxation chamber.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" I asked.

"Yes, good. You found it. There should be a way at the end of the hall," said GLaDOS from the radio. We took the it and continued walking down the hallway. When we finally got to the end, there was the standard elevator, which had a huge crack in it.

"You'll find some stairs behind the elevator," GLaDOS said. "They'll lead you to me. But there are also five testing chambers on the way. But don't worry, only 2 of them can kill you. Be careful."

We walked down the steps for a little while until there was finally a door, which was fused shut. We told this to GLaDOS.

"Well that's a problem," she said. "You know what, I think there's a crowbar on the ceiling. Take that and pry it open."

We looked up, and sure enough the crowbar was there. It was high up, but Ali was able to jump high enough to get it. Using it, we were able to get the door open pretty quickly. We were met with the first chamber, which was easy. We completed it in less than five minutes. The next two took about fifteen minutes total, and the final two took around half an hour total.

After placing a cube onto a button to finish the fifth chamber, we found a small room with a door on the other side. We tried prying it open with the crowbar like we did with the others, but it wouldn't budge.

"I have an idea," said GLaDOS. "Stand back, I'm going to blow up the door."

We did as she said, and after a few seconds the door blew up. There was a little fire left over, which we jumped through. On the other side was GLaDOS. I haven't seen her in person since the end of Phase Two.

"Good, you made it here safely," she said. "As you saw, much of this facility was destroyed. I'm convinced someone bombed it, because I didn't get any warning of any system failures from the computers."

"Wait, hold on a second," said Ali. "Why do you care if we're safe or not? We're just your test subjects."

"That doesn't matter right now," GLaDOS said quickly. "What does matter is that this building will completely collapse very soon, and we need to get out of here."

"What about you?" I asked. "You connected to the facility."

"Remember when you replaced me with the idiot?" she asked.

"Yeah, he put you in a potato."

"That's correct."

"Wait, you don't mean-" I started.

"Yes. I'm going to be POTAToS again."

Ali interrupted. "Um, if you're going to put yourself into a potato, could you hurry up? I don't think we have much time."

GLaDOS sighed. "Yes, you're right. But we need a potato. I think I still have the same one I was in before somewhere. Ah, yes. Right over there in the corner. Now, do you see that plug over there? Go ahead and stick that into the potato, then press the button next to it."

I did. Then, the potato went under the ground, and some of the panels came up to hide GLaDOS's head. After a few seconds, the potato came back up, this time looking the same as it did when Wheatley put her in there the first time. Ali stifled a laugh as she picked her up.

"Yeah, go ahead and laugh all you want. We have bigger problems, though, so you may want to focus on those inste- OH MY GOD!"

There was a loud crashing noise.

"I just opened a hole near my old body. Jump down, or we're all going to die!"

I remembered the hole, the same one GLaDOS and I fell down after Wheatley became in charge of the facility, the one leading to the old Aperture Science many miles below the surface. Except now it seemed larger in diameter, at least three yards more, probably due to the explosions. We jumped down just as the ceiling started crashing down.

We fell, knowing the pit was very long and seemingly bottomless. We felt safe for a minute or two. But then Ali brought something up.

"Oh no," she said.

"What?" I asked, concerned.

"The long-fall boots. We don't have them. We're going to die, aren't we?"


	7. Trapped

How could I have forgot. Last time I feel down this pit, I had my boots that allowed me to land on my feet at terminal velocity completely safely. But now neither of us had them.

"Oh, right," said GLaDOS, "I was going to wash them and give them back later, but I guess I forgot over all the confusion."

"You know what?" I said, "I'm not even going to get mad at you. We need to figure out how to land safely. Maybe some sort of clothing parachute?"

"Yeah," agreed Ali, "We could use our jumpsuits."

We untied the suits from our waists and were were able to rip the sides of them so they had more surface area on the outside. We tied them together by the arms so that it was like a single (uncomfortable) blanket.

Ali put GLaDOS in her pocket and we both held onto opposite ends. We slowed down a considerable amount, so once we finally reached the bottom we had a safe landing.

"That was kind of close," I said, "Now what? We're in Old Aperture, how are we supposed to get back to the surface?"

"I think there's an exit at the very back," GLaDOS said, "but we _really_ need to hurry. The entire building is starting to collapse."

The building shook.

"Exactly my point," she said.

We started walking across, leaving the parachute behind us. I remembered a lot of this from when I first came down here. Everything looked pretty much the same. We walked for a little while until we reached a big wall that looked like a giant bank vault, probably thirty yards in diameter. I remembered this from last time.

"What this?" asked Ali, "I never came down here while I was testing."

"I think this used to be the main entrance or something," I replied, "I'm not really sure. But I do know how to get past. Do you see those two little rooms? There's a button in each, we just need to press them both within a few seconds of each other and the vault will open."

"That sounds easy enough, how about I go to the left side and you take the right?"

"Sounds good."

We walked over to the rooms. The were exact mirrors of each other, both of them just about two or three square yards. I looked over at Ali at the other one. I held up three fingers, then two, then one. At the same time, we hit the buttons. A few seconds passed, then there was a loud creaking noise. The vault slowly opened up, revealing a large Aperture Science logo hanging from the ceiling.

The pre-recorded greeting from Cave Johnson, former CEO of the company played, the same one as when I came down here the first time.

"What was that?" asked Ali, "And who's Cave Johnson?"

"That was a pre-recorded message he made back in the fifties, when he was still CEO of Aperture Science. There's a lot more of them," I explained.

"Oh. What were the messages for?"

"I think they were for test subjects back when Cave Johnson was still alive. Later he mentions buying them off the street, offering them sixty dollars if they were willing to test."

"So testing was even important then?"

"Yeah, they were testing their new inventions. Like the Portal Device, for example."

"Well, we don't have any time to waste. Let's go."

We walked through the vault, into the old facility. I noticed the path I took last time, the railings, were broken even further, one side completely detached and was on the ground..

"So do we climb up there?" Ali asked.

"I think so," I answered. "Last time I had to use portals to get up there, but now I don't think we'll need them."

We had lost our portal guns when the explosions happened, so I didn't know how we would be able to pass Cave Johnson's tests coming up. We climbed up the railing, onto the catwalk up above. At the end was the first Old Aperture chamber.

"Wait," said Ali. "There are test chambers down here, too?"

"Yeah, Johnson made some too to test his new gels."

"Gel?"

"Yep. There are 3, actually I think 4 types. Blue repulsion gel, which makes surfaces really bouncy, orange acceleration gel, which makes surfaces slippery, so you can run really quickly on the. There's a grey portal gel, which makes surfaces able to have portals that didn't before, and the last one is kind of like water, it's used to remove gel from surfaces."

"How did they even make them?" she asked.

"I'm not sure, but I know the portal gel is made from moon rocks."

"Okay then," Ali said, "But how are we supposed to complete these chambers without portals?"

"You can't," said GLaDOS. "We'll have to find another way up."

The building shook again.

"I might know a way," she said, "But it will be very, very dangerous. You might die. And if you die, I'll be stuck down here forever. So don't die."

"Thanks for the support," I said sarcastically, "So what's your plan?"


	8. Outside

"Along with the Portal Device they created," GLaDOS started, "They also made a gel gun. So instead of shooting blue and orange portals, it would shoot blue and orange gel, repulsion and acceleration."

"Where would we find this _gel gun?_ " Ali asked.

"It's in the same room as the projects from the Bring your Daughter to Work Day. Remember when you were there last time?"

"Yeah, it was full of potato powered things. The potato you're in now was one of those," I said.

"Exactly," she said, "That room is at the end of this catwalk."

We walked across it towards the room. I didn't remember anything that looked like it could have been a gel gun then, but maybe I just didn't see it.

"Here we are," GLaDOS said, "The gun should be under the table of the one by a girl named Chell. That was you, wasn't it?"

I didn't remember, I didn't have any memories of anything before coming to Aperture. I looked under the table, and there was a device that looked similar to the Dual Portal Device, but it had two tubes on it, one with orange gel in it, the other with blue.

"That gun will allow you to shoot gel onto any surface," GLaDOS said, "You don't even have to worry about it running out. Just trust me on this. You two can decide who will handle it. Actually there might be a second one around here somewhere. Yes, right under that other table."

I handed the first gun to Ali and took the other one out from under the other table. This one was identical to the first.

We walked out the same door we came in.

"Look, do you see that other catwalk over there?" GLaDOS said, "You need to get over there, that's the path to the exit. Also, don't worry about the fall, the gel cushions it."

I looked at the ground between the two catwalks. It was relatively flat. I shot blue gel, the repulsion gel, onto it, splattering it all across.

"I'll go first," I said. I climbed onto the railing and jumped onto the gel down below. When I hit the ground I immediately bounced back up, safely onto the catwalk on the other side. The fall hurt a little, but I was fine. I looked over at Ali with GLaDOS and gave and nodded. She did the same, using the gel to get from the first side over to where I was.

"Good," said GLaDOS, "We made it. Now we need to get to the end of _this_ cat-" A raven swooped down and started trying to eat GLaDOS.

"No no no no no! Bird! Kill it! Kill the demon!"

Ali shooed the bird away.

"Thanks," said GLaDOS, "I have know idea how that even managed to get down here, we're miles below the surface."

We started to walk across.

"Where do we go after this?" asked Ali.

I answered, "I think there's an elevator up ahead, hopefully it's still working. It should bring us a little closer up, then there should be a path to Wheatley's old chambers.

At the end of the walk, there was an elevator, just as I predicted. Luckily, it seemed to be working. We squeezed in and started it with a button on the side. There were only two levels on it, top and bottom. When we got to the top, we saw a hallway.

"At the end of this path, we should be directly above where my old body is," said GLaDOS. "There was an elevator leading directly to the surface, but it exploded a little, so we might have to climb up."

"That sounds really, really dangerous," said Ali, "What if we fall?"

"Well you'll die, obviously," said GLaDOS.

I sighed. We kept following the path, which turned left or right every few hundred yards. After about ten or twenty minutes, we reached a small room.

"Here we are," said GLaDOS, "Look, there's where the elevator should be. Well, I won't distract you. Just climb up. Talk to you when, or if you reach the top."

The building shook, a piece of the ceiling breaking off and landing a few feet We didn't seem to have much of a choice, so we walked over the the elevator shaft. Looking down, we couldn't even see the bottom. On the sides there were a bunch of little holes, so we would be able to climb up.

"I'll go first," I said, setting down my gel gun. I grabbed onto one of the holes, put my foot in one below, then the other. I started climbing up. Once there was enough room, Ali came up behind me. It wasn't exactly the most fun thing to do, especially since my hands started to sweat a little bit after going up a few yards.

I started to get the hang of it after a little while, though, so it got a little easier. Grab a hole with one hand, then the other, then bring my feet up one at a time. At one point, I made the mistake of looking down to see how much progress we made, and my hand slipped. I was hanging on with one. I tried to grab on again, but just then the entire shaft shook, and I lost grip and fell.

"Chell!" Ali screamed. She managed to catch my hand at the last second, still holding onto the wall with the other, and pulled me up.

"Oh my god," I said, "I almost fell down. You saved me."

"Well, now we're even," she said with a smile.

We continued climbing, being much more careful. After that, I just focused on where I put my hands and feet next. Eventually, we reached the top and pulled ourselves over. The door was closed, but it swung open easily, revealing the same wheat field as before, but now it was the middle of the night. Just as we ran out the door, there was what seemed to be an earthquake, and we heard things crashing down below.

"Well, you managed not to kill yourselfs," said GLaDOS, "And by the sound of that, the entire Aperture Science facility is probably completely destroyed."

Last time I came up here, it was just a test. But now, there was no Aperture Science. It was all gone. I realized what that meant. Testing was over. I could go back to my real life, if I had one at all. I smiled. It was over. Then I realized how tired I was, that climb was exhausting.

"Should we find somewhere to sleep?" asked Ali, as if reading my mind.

"Feel free," said GLaDOS, "But first there's something you need to do."

"What's that?" I asked.

"You have to throw me down the elevator shaft," she answered. "I can't be a burden to you two, and I'd rather die in my home."

GLaDOS tried to kill me many times, but for some reason, I couldn't even think of getting rid of her.

"But Aperture Science is gone," Ali said, "And I thought you couldn't die."

"Well, this potato isn't going to last forever. And I don't care, it's more of a home to me then the real world," GLaDOS said.

"We can find another," I said.

"I don't want to live as a potato for eternity. Please, just throw me down. You need to live your lives, and I can't interfere with that. I want to die in Aperture, no matter what state it's in, knowing both of you are okay. Trust me."

Ali and I looked at each other, and silently decided we would do it, for GLaDOS.

"Okay, we'll do it" Ali said. We walked back over to the door.

"Thank you," said GLaDOS, "And good luck out there."

Ali tossed her down, watching as the potato fell down the now destroyed shaft.

After a few minutes, we walked away again. We found a nice, flat spot, and lied down next to each other. I almost fell asleep right away, but then I realized something.

"Wait," I said.

"Huh?" said Ali tiredly.

"She's never thanked anyone for anything before," I said, "And she's never been that nice. Something just doesn't seem right."

"Maybe it was just the potato running low," said Ali, "Everything's probably fine.

"Maybe," I said, "But for some reason I don't think this is over. But you're right, we should get some sleep."

"Yeah," she said, "Let's discuss this in the morning. Good night."

"Goodnight," I replied.

I spent a moment looking at the stars, wondering if this would be my last time seeing them in a while. But eventually, tiredness overtook me and I fell asleep.

After what only seemed like a few seconds, I was shaken awake.

"You were right," Ali said quickly, "About GLaDOS. We have to leave, now."


	9. Liberation

"What?" I asked, still half asleep.

"There's no time," said Ali hurriedly, "Come on!"

I got to my feet and started running with her, not sure where we were going. We kept sprinting until we saw the same barn as I saw last time.

"That leads right back to Aperture," I warned, breathing heavily.

We ran past it. The ground started to shake a little.

"Oh no," Ali said under her breath.

Holes started forming all around us, and I had no doubt they lead right to GLaDOS. We ran faster, dodging the holes as they formed everywhere.

Out of nowhere, a wall of fire erupted in front of us, stopping us in our tracks. The fire started to quickly spread through the wheat. We ran to the right, hoping to find away around, but it spreaded like wildfire, which it was. Soon we were trapped, and it was coming closer fast.

"This way!" said Ali, darting to the left. I followed. We were running straight towards one of the walls, the one that seemed thinnest. We jumped through, quick enough so we didn't get any serious burns, but it stung a little. Despite being completely out of breath, we continued sprinting, going faster than I thought possible.

Soon, we saw buildings in the distance, a city by the looks of it. I was sure this was another one of GLaDOS's tricks, but there wasn't really another option, so we continued our beeline. As we got closer, more holes started forming in front of us, now multiple yards in diameter. She _really_ wanted to stop us. We managed not to fall in any, though.

After a few minutes, we finally made it to the buildings. Ali and I finally stopped, completely exhausted. I felt like I could pass out, even though I just woke up. After a few moments we walked inside somewhere, it seemed to be a clothing store. There was soft music playing. We walked to the cash register, hoping to see someone, but nobody was there. Ali felt one of the shirts.

"It's plastic," she said, concerned. "This isn't a clothing store at all."

I ran to the door, but it was locked. I picked up a chair from a corner and tried smashing the window, but it stayed intact. The music stopped.

"Congratulations," said GLaDOS's voice from the speakers, "You were dumb enough to fall right into my little trap."

At this point, I just couldn't take it anymore.

"Why can't we just go," I said sadly, "Why do we have to do this for our entire lives, there's no point. Why do you need us for testing, anyway?"

"Oh, I don't need you anymore," she said, "And just so you know, everything before now was just a simple test. The facility is completely okay, and by you throwing me back in, I was able to transfer back to my old body. But I'm not going to make you do for any longer. You're here for a different reason, to die. It's a shame, really, to make it end for you, but some things just have to end. Remember your old friend, deadly neurotoxin?"

The air vents turned on, and the green gas I knew very well started coming out. We ran around, looking for anything that could help, and we found a back room. We ran in, closing the door behind us. There weren't any vents there luckily, but there were some cracks around the door, so we weren't safe.

"Come out of there, you're just delaying your death," GLaDOS said.

"Delaying death is one of my favorite hobbies," I said.

Ali and I searched the room, but we couldn't find anything that could be of use. It was just full of the same fake clothing.

"If this was real," Ali said, "It would be a lot more useful."

We kept looking around for about a minute, but there was just nothing.

"Well, we're trapped here at this point," I said. "If we open the door, we'll die in seconds."

"Wait, I think I found something," Ali said.

"What?" I asked.

"Over here, I think this is some type of trap door," she said, coughing. There was a lot of toxin in the room at this point.

I ran over, and in front of her was a handle bolted to the ground. Together, we were able to open it, revealing a tiny, dark room, if you could even call it that. It was only about five square feet. Having no other options, we got in together and closed the door above us. It was a little difficult because of some padding, which meant it was probably airtight. No neurotoxin would be able to get in, but we had limited oxygen.

"Where did you go," said GLaDOS, "Come back out where I can see you."

We didn't say anything.

"Fine, if you want to be stubborn, I'll just blow you up," she said, "And finally be done with you."

A few moments passed, then we heard a faint ticking noise above us. Ali grabbed my hand.

"We have think of something," she said, "If we stay we'll die, but we can't leave because of the neurotoxin. Unless that's not a bomb at all, just a device playing the tick on repeat."

"So I think our best chance at survival would be to stay in here, at least there's a small chance we'll be okay," I said.

We waited a few more minutes, and eventually the ticking stopped. Half a second later there was an explosion above us. I heard a scream, not sure if it was Ali's or my own. I couldn't see anything, and all I could hear were explosions, over and over. I couldn't feel Ali's hand anymore, or anything for that matter. There was a faint laughing sound, probably GLaDOS's, but I couldn't tell.

After what seemed like an eternity, my sight returned and I could hear again. I had no idea how I was still alive. I looked around, and saw I was in the same building, but the walls and roof were mostly destroyed. I saw Ali in the corner, unconscious. I ran over, ignoring the burning pain in my side.

When I saw she was breathing, I sighed in relief, and I shaked her awake.

"What happened?" she asked, "How long has it been since she tried to kill us? And how are we okay?"

"I have no idea why we aren't dead. The explosion should've killed us," I answered. I looked up where the roof used to be, and saw that it was dark out, which meant we were out for a while.

"So now what?" Ali said, "Everything is destroyed, GLaDOS probably thinks we're dead."

"Oh, no I don't," GLaDOS said, "I can see you perfectly fine."

We looked around, but there weren't any cameras in sight. I wasn't sure I believed her.

"You can try to run, but I'll find you. Actually, you know what? I think some more testing would be nice, to find out how you're still alive after I blew the building up."

Ali and I bolted, we did _not_ want to go back. We heard GLaDOS laughing.

We had no idea where we were going, but anywhere else was better than being back at Aperture.


	10. Carefree

I felt like I was dying. Ali and I have been running quickly for almost an hour non-stop after we somehow survived the building blowing up. We were back in the wheat field, and I was exhausted. Ali was right in front of me so I couldn't see what she looked like then.

She started slowing down, then collapsed on the ground. I did the same. We couldn't even talk, and I was so thirsty that it felt like there was an animal in my throat tearing its way out. I don't even know how long it's been since I ate or drank anything, since I never got anything from GLaDOS. Right then, she was back at Aperture, better than ever.

We smelled horrible, I haven't showered since I woke up in the relaxation vault for the first time, and I haven't had any clothes to change into either. We needed a place to go, to refresh ourselves. I was about to say to Ali that I'd look around for some sort of water source, to drink from and clean ourselves in, but I fell unconscious before I had the chance, from hunger, thirst, and exhaustion.

When I woke, Ali was right above me.

"Finally, you're awake," she said, "How are you?"

"Well I'm hungry, thirsty, and I probably smell horrible," I said, getting up.

"Yeah, well I was thinking today we should try to find some way to fix those for both of us. Maybe there's a little pond or something somewhere," Ali said hopefully.

"And an all you can eat buffet," I said with a smirk.

Ali laughed. "I think you're losing your grip on reality. Let's go."

We walked around the wheat field, looking for anything that could help us. At one point, I tripped over something, and Ali helped me up.

"What was that?" she asked..

I looked at what I tripped over. It was a hatch of some sort. We looked at each other, thinking the same thing. It must have been an entrance to the Aperture Science facility.

"Let's open it, just see what's inside," Ali said.

We held onto the handle together and pulled it open. Inside was surprisingly not an entrance to the laboratories. There was a plastic bag full of water bottles, and two boxes of uncooked spaghetti, as well as ten boxes of baby wipes.

"Jackpot," I whispered. We raided everything inside, not caring who it belonged to or why it was there. We each drank two bottles of water each on the spot, leaving 6 more. We put the spaghetti in the bag. Then we took about ten minutes to clean ourselves and our clothes as best we could with the baby wipes.

I felt better than I ever did before, at least from what I could remember. I was completely clean, as were my clothes, my thirst was gone, and I was full from the water. I didn't even think about how suspicious it was that we found the supplies, how we found exactly what we needed, at the exact right place, and at the exact right time. I did, however, realize that we wouldn't have found the stash if I didn't step exactly where I did.

For the entire day, we just walked in one direction, taking turns holding the bag of water, food, and the unused baby wipes. By the end of the day, we went through one more bottle of water each (so there were 4 left), and half box of uncooked spaghetti.

When night came, we lied down in the wheat, putting the bag down next to us and fell asleep quickly. The next day we did the same, trying to get as far as possible. We tried to make the supplies last, so we only went through one bottle of water total, and only had a quarter box of pasta together.

This continued for 6 more days. Each day we limited ourselves to having a half bottle of water each, and we ate as little and as rarely as possible. On the seventh day, we had one water bottle left, and a quarter box of spaghetti. We were both hungry and thirsty, but not anywhere near as much as before we found the stash. We had to make everything last as long as possible, and we hadn't used any of the baby wipes since we found them.

"What will we do once we run out of food and water?" I asked while we were walking that evening.

"Hopefully we'll find something by then," said Ali, "But we should really conserve our supplies. Do you think we can eat this wheat raw?"

"I'm pretty sure you can," I said, "But it won't give us nearly as much energy as normal food. But then again, this spaghetti doesn't have much energy either, so it won't be much of a downgrade."

"That's good."

About an hour later, we decided to call it a night, so we got lied down, got as comfortable as we could, and fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was the middle of the night. I sat up and looked over at Ali, who was still asleep. I smiled, thinking about how cute she looked then. Her blonde hair was covering half her face, and she was smiling slightly, as if she was having a pleasant dream. I lied back down, and a few moments later Ali woke up.

"You're awake too?" she asked, noticing me looking at the sky

"Yeah," I said, "The stars are pretty tonight."

"Yes, they are," Ali said, staring at the sky. She sat up, and I did the same. Our faces were inches apart. For a moment, we just looked at each other, keeping eye contact. Then she did something that I did not expect.

Ali leaned in and kissed me. It was only for a few seconds, but it felt like it lasted hours. Her lips were smooth and sweet, our eyes were closed. I heard bugs chirping happily around us. While it lasted, I forgot about all our worries, I forgot all about Aperture Science, GLaDOS, and everything else. I was disappointed when she pulled away.

"Now get some sleep," she said softly.

As I was lying down, I was happier than I've ever been in my life. I didn't remember most of my life before Aperture, but I was sure I was never as happy as I was at that moment. I fell asleep not worrying about anything, for the first time in a long, long time.


	11. Reversion

I woke again in the morning, with the sun shining on my face. I noticed Ali was still asleep.

"Hey," I said gently "Time to wake up."

She slowly opened her eyes and smiled, and I helped her up. I saw our bag a few yards farther than where we left it, but I didn't really think about it very much. I was about to walk over and get it, but suddenly the ground started shaking violently. We both fell onto the ground.

"An earthquake?" I asked.

"This feels like more than an earthquake," Ali replied, grabbing my hand.

She was right. The ground we were standing on opened up like a big trapdoor and we fell, with our only supply of food and water back on the surface.

"No!" I yelled, "Not again!"

"I told you I would find you," We heard GLaDOS say, "Honestly, I thought about making you do some more testing, but I'm done with you. You've caused me a lot of pain, and I just can't deal with you anymore. This time, it's actually over."

Ali and I held on tight to each other as we continued falling at terminal velocity.

"So is this it?" She asked, "Are we really going to die?"

"I don't see any other options, the parachute we made is back at Aperture," I said.

"Right when I was starting to think we would get a happy ending," Ali said quietly, "Away from all this. Away from everything, together."

Then I kissed her.

"I love you, Ali," I said, surprising myself. I didn't even know I did until then, but I knew I felt that way.

"Chell," whispered Ali, "I love you too. I was scared you would hate me if you knew before. Last night I... I couldn't stop myself."

"It's okay," I said, "We're together now, and that's all that matters."

We shut our eyes and braced ourselves for death. Suddenly I couldn't feel anything except pain. All I was aware of was my entire body feeling like it was burning, melting. I tried to cry out, but my voice didn't work. I thought I was dead, for sure. After what felt like years, it stopped.

I opened my eyes and realized I was in a bed, wearing the exact same thing as before. I realized Ali was right next to me, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I looked around the small room and saw there was nothing else in the room but a little chair in the corner, a painting of a sunset on the wall, and a door.

"I bet you're wondering why you're still alive," said GLaDOS, waking up Ali. She looked at me with confusion. I just shrugged.

"I have a lot of explaining to do," GLaDOS said, "And I don't think you'll like what I say."

"Okay," Ali said, "Explain then."

"First of all," GLaDOS said, "The human race is very close to extinction. You two are the last ones left. I needed you to test so I could gain information about the way your minds work. That's because I want to create a new type of human, one specifically designed to test to fulfill my desires. And that won't want to kill me. Well actually, not just one new human, but thousands. But before I can do that, you two need to die. At first I wanted you to kill each other off, which is why I met you up in the first place, but after the first few died I knew you weren't going to finish each other, so I stopped it. I tried to kill you myself, but you survived the explosion. Then I tried killing you with that fall, but you survived, barely. I could have left you there for a few more seconds, which definitely would have finished you, but I didn't. Both your brains were severely damaged from the fall, so my plan would be ruined if you died. I took you back into the facility and managed to get you fixed. And so here you are now."

I couldn't decide what to think. I was relieved we were still alive, but I was also really angry. Why couldn't GLaDOS just leave us alone?

"Why do you need us to die so badly?" I asked, "Why can't we just leave?"

"Yeah," agreed Ali, "It makes no sense."

"You need to die because there's a part of your brain I need to cut out, so I can make sure the new humans _don't_ have them. It's called the limbic system, and it controls emotions. If my new species doesn't have emotion, then they won't ever turn against me. And I can't use any other body because they need to have died fairly recently."

"What about the other test subject? The ones you had us fight against? Just use those," I said.

"I am," GLaDOS replied, "But I need yours too, or else I won't have enough."

GLaDOS needed to kill us because she wanted a part of our brains for a new species she's creating, and she wanted to make sure they didn't have emotions. I don't know why, but I didn't find this surprising.

"What about your robots?" I asked. "Why can't they test?"

"They're harder to make, you can't exactly breed robots. And they malfunction, too," GLaDOS answered.

"Wait, I have an idea," said Ali, "Just duplicate the others you have. Then you'll have enough."

"You don't seem to understand," said GLaDOS, "They have to all be from different people. Alright, enough chatting, go back to sleep so I can plot your death."

I couldn't think of anything to do then. I jumped out of the bed and tried the door. Of course, it was locked.

"Here, help me with this," I said to Ali, picking up the wooden chair. Together, we smashed it against the door over and over, until the door broke open. GLaDOS just laughed.

On the other side was a hallway, which we starting running down.

"There's no escape," said GLaDOS, "You're stuck here."

We kept running, ignoring her. At the end of the hallway there was just a dead end. There was a door, but it was made of metal, so we couldn't just break through it.

"Hey, look," whispered Ali, motioning at the ceiling, "We could go through there."

Right above us, there was an air vent. If we opened it, it would be just big enough for us to squeeze into.

"I'll be right back," I said, running back towards the room we were in before. I took the chair and ran back to Ali. I set it on the ground and she stood on it, so she was able to take the cover off the vent and throw it back down onto the ground. Ali pulled herself up into the ventilation duct. Once she was up, she helped me up too, so we were both in.

"Where did you go?" asked GLaDOS, "You were just here."

I smiled to myself. Even computers could have flaws, and she made one by installing an

air conditioning system here.

We crawled through, me in front of Ali, taking a random path. I kept track of the turned we made for if we had to turn around. Left, right, right, left, left, right.

Finally we found another cover, which I pulled off and set aside. I looked down, saw that there was solid ground below, and jumped down, Ali coming down behind me. We realized where we were and stared in horror. There, right in front of us, was none other than GLaDOS. I grabbed Ali's hand.

"So you came back," said GLaDOS, "I guess now you have to admit that trying to escape was a dumb idea. I would apologize for what's about to happen, but I'm not going to regret it. Kiss each other goodbye, because this time I'm starting up the neurotoxin right away."


	12. Transformation

From the parts of my life I can remember, GLaDOS had tried to kill me more times than I can count. But I stayed alive, so I wasn't about to let her win now. Every single time, there's been a way to fight back and survive, so I figured this time wouldn't be any different. I thought over my options. The room was filling with a deadly toxin that would kill me in about ten minutes, meaning we had to act fast. GLaDOS, however, wasn't affected at all by it. Neurotoxin wouldn't do her any damage. There wasn't a portal gun we could use, only our bare hands. I thought about escaping the way we came, but I saw that it was actually coming from the air vent, meaning that would be suicide.

Looking around more, I saw that one part of the wall was made of glass. Ali and I ran over to it and looked through it. On the other side was a tiny room, if you could even call it that, full of spherical cores. None of them seemed to be active. There was also a numeric keyboard on the wall next to it.

"I have an idea," I said, "We need one of those cores."

"I wouldn't bother," said GLaDOS, "That wall won't break no matter how hard you smash it. Besides, you wouldn't be able to turn them on."

I ignored her.

"On three," I said, "One two, three!"

I didn't even have to elaborate on what we would do, Ali understood. At the same time, we slammed our bodies against the glass. But just as GLaDOS said, it didn't budge. So we tried the keypad, it was obviously where you would put in the password to open the door.

There were four digits in the password, which meant there were ten thousand possible passwords. I knew that if I just started at 0000, then 0001, 0002, and just kept counting up, eventually I would get it correct. I started on that while Ali looked for another possible solution.

After about four minutes, I was getting dizzy from the toxin. I was at 0112 on the keypad.

"You're doing great," said GLaDOS, "Just keep at it for another few minutes and the deadly neurotoxin will finish you."

"Hey look," said Ali, "I may have found something."

I ran over and saw what she was looking at. One of the panels on the wall, one of the small ones, was broken. It wasn't very noticeable, but it was barely connected.

"Maybe we can get it off and block the vent to get you a little more time."

"Great," I said, "Let's get it off."

Together we pulled at it, and we were able to get it off without too much difficulty. Behind it was a solid wall of concrete.

We brought the panel over to the vent.

"What exactly are you doing?" asked GLaDOS. I could hear a little bit of worry in her voice.

Now under the vent, I helped Ali get up closer, both of us holding our breath. She took the little panel and shoved it into the vent. It barely fit, but it stayed in. The neurotoxin was now barely able to leak out at all, giving us much more time, maybe up to another hour.

"As I said before, you're just delaying your death," said GLaDOS.

"And as I said before," I said, "Delaying death is one of my favorite hobbies."

The password ended up being 1837. That took me a while to figure out, I didn't know how long exactly. The door opened and all the cores spilled out. I had the idea that we could replace GLaDOS with one of them so we could finally escape forever, but as she said, they all seemed to be off. I didn't give up though. We spent a while getting the door open, so we have to use the cores for something.

Then, I saw was a purple light coming from the bottom of the pile. Very faint, but definitely there. Ali helped me through all the other cores aside until we saw the source. One of the cores was on. It looked almost identical to Wheatley, but the eye was purple instead of blue, and so were the handle things on it.

"Hello," it said, "How are you?"

"About to die, actually," I replied. But now was no time to chat.

"Alternate core detected." said the announcer, "To initiate a core transfer, please deposit substitute core in receptacle."

A little circle on the floor opened up, with a small contraption coming out from it. On it was a little plug, the same one I plugged Wheatley into before. I took the core and plugged it in.

"Substitute core accepted," said the announcer, "Substitute core, are you ready to start the procedure?"

The core accepted.

"Corrupted core, are you ready to start the procedure?"

"No!" said GLaDOS.

"Stalemate detected," said the announcer, "Transfer procedure cannot continue. Unless a stalemate associate is present to press the stalemate resolution button."

A room opened up next to the one we were in. I wasn't surprised when I saw a single button in the room with nothing else. This has happened twice to me before. I knew what to expect, GLaDOS would do everything in her power from stopping us. I grabbed two of the broken cores and threw one to Ali. We ran into the second room.

"Watch," I said, tossing my core next to the button. Just as I predicted, the panel it landed on catapulted the core away.

"So how are we supposed to get to it?" asked Ali.

"Okay, do you see how right after the core got shot away?" I whispered, so GLaDOS couldn't hear. "The panel was just stationary for a second, just staying in that position before it went back down? Well, if we time it right, we can jump over the panel just as it's about to get back into resting position. Then we'll be able to hit the button and complete the transfer."

"Well, let's try it," Ali whispered back.

She tossed her core forward at the button. We waited just a moment, then went running after it. The panel shot up and catapulted it back towards us, and we ducked under it. We jumped over the panel just as it was getting back into resting position and we pressed the button at the same time.

"Stalemate resolved," said the announcer.

"No!" GLaDOS screamed, "Not again! No! No! No no no no no! Stop it!"

Her cries were then silenced as machinery removed her core and replaced it with the other. Where GLaDOS's core used to be, there was the new one.

"Well now that's over," it said, "Don't bother explaining everything, I have access to everything now. Thanks, by the way."

"Who are you?" Ali asked.

"Oh, my name is Andrew. I'm a morality core. And because of that, I know how tough you have it. I'll let you go, don't worry. But first, you both look incredibly tired."

"Very," I said.

"Alright then. Why don't you get some rest," Andrew said.

A door opened on the other side of the room. Ali and I walked over. On the other side was a full-sized bed. She and I lept onto it and fell asleep almost immediately. For the first time ever, it really seemed like we would be free.


	13. Free

When I woke up, I didn't get up right away, I just stayed in bed for a little while. It felt good lying there, with Ali in my arms and not a thing to worry about. After a few minutes, I stood up, waking up Ali.

"It's finally time," she said, "We can finally leave this Hell."

I smiled. For as long as I could remember, this has been my life. Making my way through the test chambers with the portal gun, GLaDOS watching me. But now it's over.

"Ah, good, you're awake," said Andrew, "You've been out for almost two full days."

"Well, we're a little sleep deprived," I said, "After multiple years with _her._ "

I thought of something then.

"Hey, where's the nearest incinerator?" I asked, "There's something that I think has to be done."

"Oh, let me look," said Andrew, searching through the files. "There's actually one in the next room over. I'll open it up for you."

On the wall, some of the panels moved aside, revealing a previously hidden room.

"Hey, can you help me with this?" I asked Ali, taking one side of GLaDOS's dead core. It was bigger than all the others, probably because it was made to be the central unit, to control the facility.

"Happily," she said, grinning. She picked up the other side, and together we brought it over to the other room. As we neared the incinerator, it opened.

"This is it," I said, "After this, she'll never be able to torture us ever again. It's be over."

"Let's do it," Ali said. We lifted the core higher and dropped it into the incinerator. That was it. GLaDOS was dead, permanently this time.

"Are you finished with that?" asked Andrew.

"Yes," we said in unison.

"Excellent. Now look over there in the corner, I'm opening up an elevator to the surface. That will take you out of here," Andrew said.

We looked over, and saw that there was indeed an elevator that hadn't been there before. We walked over, thanked Andrew, and stepped inside, the doors closing behind us. It started moving upwards.

GLaDOS was gone. A morality core was in charge of Aperture. We were free. What else could I ask for?

The elevator doors opened. In front of us was another very familiar door. We pushed it open, and saw a sight we have seen many times before, the wheat field. But we didn't stay for long.

We ran out, and kept on running. We ran until our legs couldn't stand it any longer and we fell onto the warm ground. We were both crying tears of joy.

But we kept moving. We kept walking through the field, hoping to return to the real world as soon as possible.

"Oh no," I said, "I just realized. Remember what She said about us being the last two people alive? Do you think she was telling the truth?"

"I guess we'll find out," answered Ali, "I kind of doubt it, but you never know."

I thought about what would happen if GLaDOS didn't lie about that. There wouldn't be any future for the human race, because obviously reproduction isn't an option. Once we both died, which species would be the dominate one of the planet? Or would there be one at all? I knew there were still other animals, remembering the bird we saw in Old Aperture.

We finally found something other than just wheat by the time the sun started setting. There seemed to be a little town up ahead, so we sped up a little. By the time we arrived, it was completely dark outside. Nobody was outside. We walked to the closest building, a small house, and knocked. No answer. We tried another, no answer there either. We tried every house on the steed, but no one was there. We gave up and just walked into one of them, the door was unlocked.

"Hello?" I called. I didn't hear anything. Ali and I searched the house, but we didn't find anyone. We decided to raid the kitchen, we probably needed food and water more than whoever lived here. We looked through every cabinet and every drawer and took out everything we found, but there wasn't much. A box of matches, an empty water bottle, and a single spoon. There wasn't any trace of anything you could eat except dog food, but we weren't that desperate. The faucets worked, though, so we did have a source of water.

By the time we were finished, it was probably the middle of the night. We walked all day, and we were exhausted, so we decided to call it a night. We took actual showers for the first time I could remember, and changed clothes with some we found in a closet after. It felt weird to be wearing something other than the old Aperture Science jumpsuit, but I didn't care. We jumped into one of the beds on the upper level and fell asleep.

In the morning, we decided to raid some other houses also. We basically decided that the town was abandoned. We spent the next four hours doing, that and managed to find a first aid kit, a second empty water bottle, and an entire loaf of stale bread. That's everything major, at least. We also decided to stay in the town for a while. We had no idea where we were going in the wheat field, and it seemed like we could keep ourselves alive here, so it seemed like the best option.

On the third night there, just as we were about to fall asleep, we heard a noise..

"What was that?" Ali asked.

"I think that was the door opening," I said, "I'll go check it out. You stay here."

I got out of bed and slowly walked down the steps, careful not to make any noise. At the bottom, I looked around, but nothing was there. I turned around to go back upstairs, but a man was standing right there, holding a knife.

"Don't move," he said quietly, bringing the knife right in front of my neck. "What are you doing in my house?" he asked.

I tried to breath. "I just- we were just-"

"What do you mean 'we?'"

"My g- my _friend_ is here, too, upstairs."

He narrowed his eyes. "Why don't you call them down here."

"Ali?" I called, not taking my eyes off the man, "You might want to come downstairs."

I heard her running across the upstairs hallway, then stopping when she got to the top of the stairs and saw us.

"What are you doing?" she asked, "Take that knife away from her." The man didn't move.

"Don't tell me what to do, girl. I'll kill you both unless you tell me what the _Hell_ you're doing in my house!"

"We thought the town was abandoned," Ali said quickly, "We thought nobody still lived here."

"If we didn't live here," said the man, "Why would my clothes still be here? In fact, you're wearing my dead daughter's right now."

"We're sorry we came," said Ali, "We can leave if you like."

"You trespass onto my property and take my stuff and you expect me to just let you go?" he asked.

I backed away a little."Well-"

"Don't answer that," he warned. I locked eyes with Ali. We could read each other's expressions. They both said the same thing. Run. We both sprinted towards the door.

"Hey!" he yelled, "Come back here!"

I unlocked the door and we ran outside and across the town, the man chasing with the knife in his hand. He threw it at us and missed my leg by an inch. We made it to the other side of the town and ran back into the field. We kept running even after is was clear we weren't being chased anymore.

"I guess we aren't alone after all," I said once we stopped and caught our breaths.

"I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not at this point," replied Ali.

We kept walking, wanting badly to just fall asleep, but neither of us felt safe. We kept going until we found a little tool shed a few miles from the town. We went inside and pushed everything on the ground to the back end of the shed. It wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep, or the safest, but we didn't feel nearly as safe outside. We stayed close, using each other for warmth, and eventually fell asleep on the cold, hard ground.

* * *

 **So I realized that I'm ending most of my chapters with Chell and Ali just falling asleep, it's just easier to write. I'll try to add some more variety, though. By the way, how do you like the story? It's my first FanFiction, so I hope it's not a complete train wreck. Thanks for the Feedback!**

 **-DELToS**


	14. Separation

We woke up, still in the shed. Before we left, we looked around to see if there was anything that could be of use to us. In the back, I found a map on the wall. I touched it, hoping to be able to take it down, but it crumbled at my touch. I left it alone, studying it.

"Hey, look at this," I said over my shoulder. Ali was digging around in a pile of tools, but stopped to see what I was looking at.

"It's a map of some sort," I said, trying to read what it said.

"It's Michigan," Ali realized, "That's probably where we are now."

I saw what she meant. Near the top-right corner of the map were the words Michigan State Map, but everything else was completely faded out.

"Well that's one question answered," I said. We took one last quick look around the room before leaving, still heading directly away from the entrance to Aperture Science. We still had no idea where we were going, or if we were even getting close to the end of the field, but we were determined to find out.

About an hour after we left, I heard a very faint and distant noise. It sounded like the ocean. At first I thought it was my imagination, but it got louder.

"Do you hear that?" I asked Ali.

"Yeah," she said, "I'm not sure what it is."

Then we looked behind us.

In the distance was a giant tsunami, probably fifty feet tall, and wider than I could see. And it was coming straight for us, fast.

"Go!" I said, "Run!"

Once, we were sprinting through the endless field. My lungs were screaming, but I ignored the pain. I glanced back, and saw that the wave was getting closer, fast. I grabbed Ali's hand, both of us still running as fast as we could. As it neared, I couldn't hear anything but the unmeasurable amount of water coming closer and closer.

What was a tsunami doing in Michigan? I knew it was next to one of the Great Lakes, but that couldn't be close to big enough to create something this massive. But then again, it's been a while since I learned that, before I had my memory wiped. I remembered GLaDOS saying that I've been asleep for a really long time after I killed her the first time, but there was no way I was asleep for long enough for the lakes to move and get bigger. I would have had to be unconscious for at least a few thousand years, which I thought was impossible. But there it was, a wave larger than I could ever imagine.

Running was useless, knew no matter what we couldn't escape the tsunami. I stopped, and Ali did too. The wave was getting closer. Fifty feet. Forty feet. Thirty. Twenty. We stood there, not running anymore, just embracing each other in our arms as thousands of gallons of water crashed over us.

I felt like my skin was being teared apart, and all the debris in the water kept hitting Ali and me. I felt a sharp pain in my arm, and I almost let go of her hand. I knew I wouldn't be able to hold on forever, though. My lungs were burning, and I knew we needed air badly. But I was disoriented, I didn't know where to go. I stopped myself from taking a breath.

I started kicking in a random direction, desperate for air, but Ali was weighing me down. I didn't think she was moving, which really scared me. I tried one last time to push myself somewhere in the water, getting nowhere. My entire body hurt from all the debris, and my lungs were at a completely different level of pain. I didn't want to give up, we didn't go through everything at Aperture just to die. But apparently my body didn't feel the same, and I lost consciousness.

I woke to the unmistakable smell of bacon cooking. I sat up, trying to remember what happened, and opened my eyes. I was in a bed, an actual bed, in a small room. There was a framed picture of a river on the wall, a door, and a window. I looked at my arms and saw dried blood and cuts everywhere.

Suddenly, all at once, I remembered where they came from. The tsunami in the wheat field. The thousands of gallons of water crashing over me, the feeling of my skin being ripped from my body. But how was I still alive?

The door opened, and somebody stepped out. It was a boy, who looked about my age. He had short brown hair and very pale, green eyes.

"Oh good, you're awake," he said.

"Who are you?" I asked, "Where am I?"

"I'm James," he answered, "And you're in my house. I found you in the forest yesterday, just laying there on the ground. I figured you were probably hurt pretty bad, so I brought you back here."

"I'm Chell," I said, "Is there a shower or something I could use?" I asked. I needed to get cleaned up, I had dirt all over my body, along with my cuts.

"Yeah sure," he said, "There's one in the room right next to here. There's towels in there, too."

"Thanks," I said, standing up. I walked over to the other room and took a shower. When I was finished, I put on one of the towels and walked back to the bedroom. On the bed was a change of clothes and a plate of eggs and bacon. I smiled, then changed into the new jeans and T-shirt. I ate like a wolf, I hadn't eaten for a while before. I still had no idea how I was able to go without food or water for so long.

I finished quickly, walked outside of my room again, and went down the flight of stairs. I searched around for a bit until I found James, who was sitting down at a table in the kitchen. I sat next to him.

"How do you feel?" he asked.

"Great, thanks," I said, "But I still have a few questions. So I've been, um, absent, for a while, and I've been told that there aren't any other humans left. But apparently I was lied to, so what's the status of humanity?"

"Well, the numbers aren't great," James said, "There's not very many people alive. But what do you mean you've been absent?"

"I don't really want to talk about it," I said, shuddering, "Bad memories."

"Okay, fine. Anything else?"

Then I remembered Ali. I haven't thought about her at all since I woke up here.

"Yes," I said, "Is there any chance you've seen someone else, a girl about my height, with long blonde hair?"

"No, I haven't seen anyone else in months, sorry," James said, "Who is she?"

"Her name is Ali. She's my… my girlfriend."

James raised an eyebrow. "Girlfriend?"

"Yeah."

"Like, as in more than a friend? You're in a romantic relationship with her?"

"Yeah. Why are you looking at me like that?"

"So you're gay?" he asked cautiously.

I thought for a moment. "Yeah, I guess you could say that."

"Okay then."

There was a sudden crashing noise on the other side of the house.

"Stay here," James said, getting up. He slowly walked over to where the noise came from. I waited. Then I heard a gunshot.

"Chell, run!" James yelled.

I jumped up and ran to the sliding glass door next to the table, opened it and dashed out. I didn't go far, though. I didn't want to get too far from where I was, in case James needed help. I also needed to find Ali, assuming she was still alive. I shook that thought out of my head. Of course she was alive. I hoped she was. I couldn't bear the idea of her dying.

I found a big tree to hide behind. I kept looking at the house, seeing if anyone else came out of the doors. I watched for about 2 minutes, and then I decided to walk back in and see what happened. But before I could move, somebody grabbed my arms and put them behind my back.

"Don't move," he, tying a rope around my wrists. He put a blindfold around my head and put his hand over my mouth. He led me deeper into the forest.

"There's things that must be done," he said.

After a few minutes of walking, we stopped. I heard doors opening, and then the man threw me into the back of what was probably a truck, closing the doors behind him.

"Chell?" said Ali's voice.

"Ali?" I asked. My blindfold was taken off. Right in front of me was Ali. Without thinking, I leaned in and kissed her. I kissed her like her lips were air and I couldn't breath. When I finally pulled away, she laughed.

"What's happening?" I asked.

"I have no idea," she answered, "It can't be good, though."

"Of course not. Nothing good ever happens to us."

Ali laughed again. "So what happened to you after the wave?"

We exchanged stories. Ali simply woke up in the truck, and nothing happened until I came.

"We were only apart for a few hours, but I already missed you so much," I said once we finished.

"Yeah, me too," said Ali, "But the important thing is that we're together now. Wherever we're going, we will be together, and that's what matters."


	15. Goodbyes

For several hours after the truck started moving, nothing really happened. We sort of just sat around, trying not to get hurt whenever we ran over a big bump. Despite getting sufficient sleep the night before, I was still tired, but it was impossible to sleep with the stress about where we were going. I already knew, but I didn't want to say it out loud.

Right when I thought I was going to go insane with a combination of boredom and claustrophobia, we stopped. Ali and I locked eyes, and we knew what we were going to do. The doors swung open a second later, and we wasted no time trying to escape. We jumped out of the back and made a run for it. But somebody must have knew we would attempt running, because one of the piles of leaves we stepped on while sprinting through another forest wasn't just a pile of leaves at all. Instead. It was the old trick of hiding a blanket above a hole in the ground, causing us to fall.

It wasn't a soft landing. I half expected something the break the fall, but there was nothing. I wasn't sure how far we were from the surface, but it was enough to cause a loud snapping noise when I tried to land on my feet.

I could tell right away my left leg was broken. Burning pain shot up it and I stifled the urge to scream. I couldn't focus my attention on anything but the pain, everything else seemed far off and blurry. I could see Ali above me, seemingly okay, but my brain was registering everything slower than usual. I tried to focus on something else, anything else. I looked down at my shirt, the same one I took from the small town before. I remembered the man we saw then, and how we were told the human race was almost extinct besides the two of us. I guessed that was a lie. I also remembered James, who was definitely human. I hadn't seen him since those people, whoever they were, broke into his house. I wondered where he was and how he was doing.

After a little while, the pain in my leg didn't seem as bad, but it was still one of the most painful things I've ever felt. I looked around. We were in a small room, that was no doubt man-made. The walls were made of what looked like normal concrete, the floor hardwood. The hole in the ceiling we fell through was gone. Ali was sitting in one of the corners of the room, the closest one to me. She brightened up when she saw me looking around.

"Hey," she said, "how are you feeling?"

I almost laughed.

"Well aside from a broken leg I feel fine," I replied.

"That's good," said a new voice from above, sounding vaguely familiar. The voice sounded broken and robotic, like the vocal chords were half burned.

Burned. Familiar voice. Robotic.

GLaDOS.

Once again, against all odds, she was raised from the dead.

"We threw you into fire. You should have died," I said angrily.

She laughed softly.

"Let's talk," she said, "We have a few things to discuss. I bet you're still wondering about that tsunami. That was my doing. I'll save you the details. And the people who found you for me, they were my creation, too. Let's just say I don't need you dead anymore. But I definitely _want_ you dead. I've changed. I don't just want you dead. I want you to suffer."

I couldn't speak. GLaDOS sounded completely different, only slightly like she used to. Why did she want us to suffer?

"Chelsea, you especially," she said, "I know you care about this girl. Based on scientific research, I'd say that you value her life more than your own. It's a shame she won't be around much longer. Say your goodbyes."

She couldn't. And yet, she was going to. I was correct about where we were going in that truck, and I knew where this was going too.

"No," I whispered. Ali looked at me in alarm, "She can't do this."

"What's stopping me?" GLaDOS said.

Just as Ali stood up to run towards me, a huge glass wall shot up from the ground, separating us. I tried to get up too, but I was unable due to my leg. Ali banged on the glass and even threw her body against it, with no luck. It stayed perfectly intact, not budging at all.

What was going to happen? Was she actually going to kill Ali?

I got my answer. Water started filling her side of the room, very quickly, as I stared in horror. There was nothing I could do. Even if my leg was working fine, there was nothing I could do. Within minutes the water was up to her head, and less than a minute later her head hit the ceiling. I was screaming, but I'm pretty sure the wall was completely soundproof. I ignored the horrible pain in my leg and hopped over to the glass, banging on it uselessly. The water reached the top, and Ali no longer had a source of air. For a few seconds, we just looked at each other through the clear wall, both our breaths held. I saw her try to hold her breath as long as she possibly could, then instinctively inhale.

And then she was drowning.

I could barely tell what was happening, but I knew in seconds she would be dead. I screamed, tears running down my face, and threw my own body against the glass, but I wasn't doing much at all.

Ali stopped moving.

I stopped screaming. I stopped banging against the wall. I just looked at her, now lifeless. I dropped to my knees. This couldn't be happening. I closed my eyes hard, wishing I could just wake up next to her, all of today just being a bad dream. But no, this was real. The pain in my leg was nothing compared to how I felt now. She was gone. The only person who I ever loved, and who ever loved me. The only thing that ever made me happy in this prison. The love of my life. Gone. I didn't want to live in a world without her, it felt like a huge chunk of me was just ripped from my body, worse than that even. I fell onto my back, my legs giving up. I remembered the first time she ever kissed me. I remembered feeling like there was nothing to worry about, that everything was going to be okay. I remembered the feeling of finally being free. I wished I could go back to then, even for just a second. Go back to when Ali was still alive, when we were happy.

"There," GLaDOS said, "That's better. Now your turn."

Now that I was emotionally dead, I didn't even mind dying physically. That's what GLaDOS wanted.

There was a sound that I recognized, the sound of neurotoxin coming through the vents of the room. I didn't try to look for the vents to try and escape, I didn't care anymore. I would much rather die by the hands of GLaDOS than live a life without Ali. The room was getting cloudy, and my thoughts were getting a little blurry. But right before I decided to just give up and take a big breath of toxin, there was a different sound. I moved my head slightly to look over and saw a big crack in the far wall. I tried to get up, but failed after remembering my broken leg. The wall broke completely open, somebody on the other side. They seemed to have a gas mask on.

They ran over to me and got out another one, and strapped it securely around my face when they got to me. I couldn't recognise them with all the clouds of neurotoxin surrounding me. They picked me up and brought me outside of the room, setting me down gently on the other side of the now half-gone wall, before taking a large mallet lying on the ground next to me and running back into the room. Seconds later, I heard a loud crashing noise and saw water running out of the room, the person coming out with Ali in his arms a second later, both of them soaking wet. The cloudiness wasn't nearly as bad here, so I was able to see the person. My thoughts were still blurry, but I was able to identify them. It was James.

He took off our gas masks.

"I don't suppose you can walk, can you?"

"No," I replied.

He handed me something that looked like chocolate.

"This isn't magic chocolate that will heal my leg, is it?" I asked.

"Nope, just normal chocolate. You might feel a bit better."

I ate it, no matter what emotional situation I was in, there was no way I was refusing chocolate. While I was eating it, he made a makeshift splint for my leg out of things he must've brought or found here. I had to say, he was good at it.

"I used to be a Boy Scout," he said as if reading my mind. When he finished a few minutes later, I could walk, sort of. It hurt, but it felt much better than when I tried to walk on it before.

"Come on," James said, "Let's get out of here. I'll carry her."

I followed, holding onto the catwalk handrail for support. We kept going for a while, until we reached a ladder that went far up.

"Do you think you can climb?" he asked. I nodded.

"Good. Still, be careful."

We got to the ladder and began our climb.

(POV 2)

I thought I was dead.

I remembered drowning, Chell in front of me, on the ground with a broken leg, me taking a big breath of water into my lungs, and dying. But there I was, in somebody's arms, rising slowly. I couldn't really tell what was happening exactly, but I knew we were gaining elevation. I opened my eyes, my vision blurry, but I could still tell someone was above me too. I realized it was Chell, and I calmed down a little. Chell was okay, that made me feel better. Through my blurry vision I was able to make out a splint on her broken leg.

I had a crush on her ever since we first met. It was hard not to. I found her absolutely beautiful, and she was the kindest person I've ever met. I thought back to the night I kissed her, shortly after escaping Aperture Science. My emotions had always been stronger at night, I didn't know why, but I couldn't stop myself from kissing her. I thought our friendship had ended because of it, but I knew otherwise after seeing the happiness on her face. Everytime we kissed after that she had the same expression, like there wasn't anything in the world to worry about. I felt that way too. But in reality, there were many things to worry about, mainly to do with GLaDOS. I remembered the agony I felt from being away from her for even a short amount of time after the tsunami.

Then I realized something; she thought I was dead right now. I couldn't imagine how she must feel. I needed to do something to show that I was okay. If I could just move, but I couldn't. I had to just lie there until we stopped climbing.

Eventually we did. I felt the sun shining on my face as we finally reached the surface. Whoever was carrying me brought me over to somewhere and I heard the sound of a car door opening. I was put in the backseat, still unable to move. The car started, and started moving. I lost track of time, but we were probably in the car for at least a few hours before it stopped and I was carried out. More time passed. I had no idea how much, but I knew I was lying on grass. I heard something else. I listened closely, and I heard what seemed to be the sound of digging.

Oh no.

I was going to be buried. They still thought I was dead.

I still couldn't move at all, only barely open my eyes. But not enough to attract any attention. I tried to make a sound, with no use. I was barely breathing, so they probably couldn't even notice that. I started panicking. I was going to be buried alive. I tried with all my might to move any muscle, with no luck.

I strained my eyes and tried to open them as much as I could, and I could somewhat see Chell looking straight at me, tears on her face, saying something softly that I couldn't understand. I needed to act now, while she was looking. I tried to scream. A little, tiny sound came out. I tried again, as loud as I could, but only a small noise was audible. But it did the trick.

"Ali?" she asked. I kept my eyes open as much as I could and kept making my little sound. Then I remembered something; I knew Morse Code. Using the tiny sound I was able to make, I tried to say something, in hopes that somehow the message would get across to them.

.. .- - .- .-.. .. …- .

I am alive.

I heard Chell saying, "I have an idea."

A few moments passed, before a bucket of ice cold water was splashed on my face. I sat upright instantly.

"Ali!" she said, and embraced me in a hug.

"You're alive," she said, "You're okay."

I tried to speak, but my voice was still not working. My throat was also slightly sore from making the message.

Chell frowned. "You _are_ okay, right?"

Again I tried to reply, to say that I was in fact okay, but my it was like someone pushed a switch on my voice. It just didn't work.

"You can't talk?" said a male voice.

I looked over. Standing there was a guy who looked about 21 or so, and I recognized him. He looks exactly how I pictured James in my head when Chell described him to me. I shook my head.

"I'm James," he said in a kind voice, "I guess Chell told you about me already. When I was still in Boy Scouts I decided to learn Morse Code just for the fun of it, I figured it might be able to save a life one day. I guess I was right."

"Yep," she said, then smiled again. "I just can't believe you're alive."

James later invited us to live at his house, and of course we gladly accepted. There wasn't anywhere else we could go, anyway. Chell and I shared a bed, and James slept in a different room. Even though humanity was close to extinction, he was still able to have a reliable source of food, water, and electricity for us. Finally, we could relax. My voice still was gone, but I could live with that. We had access to clean clothes, and an actual shower, and I couldn't have been happier. Every day, I would wake up next to somebody I loved, and I couldn't ask for more.

(POV 3)

I did it. _She_ was gone, permanently. Even from way out in space, I was able to connect to the Aperture Science network and use actual hacking to shut her down. I was also able to blow up the entire facility, which was a very nice feeling. And yes, I made sure they were out safely and far away before I did.

I also saved the life of someone. That was a first. Using my new, actual hacking skills I managed to make GLaDOS accidently use water-stimulating gel instead of normal water to drown that poor girl. Basically, the gel acts completely like normal water, but instead of drowning in it, your entire body just shuts down for a bit. Very handy. But yeah, I did that.

I know Chelsea doesn't know it was me who saved her, um, well whatever she was to her. Friend, girlfriend, wife, I don't know. I just hope they're happy. That's all I care about now. I think that's a pretty good apology for how I acted before. Wait, hold on a second.

Oh, okay. Apparently I was supposed to write this in past tense. Ah, whatever, it's too late for that. But Chelsea, if you ever find this message, please forgive me. Maybe one day, somehow, I can be brought back. This orange one here is driving me insane, he can't hold an actual conversation at all. But seriously, I'm sorry. I wish I could take it all back. Well, not the shutting-down-GLaDOS-and-saving-your-friend part, but the part where I betrayed you. Still can't believe I actually did that, I was insane. Well, more insane. Shut up! I don't care about how much you love space! Yeah, it's great and all but just stop it!

Anyway, maybe I'll see you again. I would like that. I hope you at least get this message. I really do. Goodbye, Chelsea.

* * *

Well, that's it. The final chapter. Yes, this is the end of Portal 3: The Return, at least for now. If I can find a way to continue the story without being super repetitive and without making the characters suffer any more, than I will definitely do that. But as of now, this is the end. Put your final reviews in the comments! Also, if you still have any questions about the story, like if there's a question in the story that doesn't have an answer, I'll add another chapter to quickly summarize the answers, but I'll wait maybe 1 or 2 months before posting it so people can get their questions in. I don't know if I want to make another FanFiction story, if I did I have no idea what I would want it to be about. I think I'll just keep it to this. I also decided to put different POV's in this chapter since it's the final one. And the last POV is Wheatley's, by the way. You guys are great, seriously. Oh yeah, if you want to keep in touch with me, I have an Instagram account, dedicated to Rubik's Cube stuff, I'd love to talk to you guys more personally, for any reason. See you!

Instagram: Speed_Cubers_IG


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